George Joseph Herriman III (1880 - 1944)

Ancestors

Biography

George Herriman was the American cartoonist who created the influential early comic strip Krazy Kat. Noted for its "poetic, dialect-heavy dialogue, its fantastic, shifting backgrounds, and its bold, experimental page layouts," it was rated by The Comics Journal as the best comic strip of the 20th century.^[1]

I’d much rather spend any evening of any week rereading the beautifully insane sanities of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat than to sit myself down in some opera house to hear some smiling Irish tenor murdering Pagliacci.

~ Theodor Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss^[2]

George Joseph Herriman was born in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans,^[2] Louisiana on 22 August 1880,^[3] the first child of George Herriman Jr. and his wife, Clara Morel. He had one brother, Henry Walter, born in 1882,^[4] and three sisters: "Ruby", born in 1885;^[5] "Pearl", born in 1888;^[6] and "Opal", born in 1895.^[6]

George's family were prominent members of New Orleans' Creole community, but by the 1880s, George's father was beginning to feel marginalized as a person of color in the Jim Crow South.^[7] In 1886 the Herriman family moved to Los Angeles, California.^[7] In California they began "passing" as white.^[2] From ten years old through high school, George even attended a school which did not admit Black students, St. Vincent's College. From then on and throughout his career, George downplayed his racial identity.^[8] He wore his black hair very short and routinely wore hats.^[8] His heritage was not widely known until a comics historian looked at George's birth certificate in 1971, well after his death.^[7]

George began drawing while he was attending St. Vincent's.^[2] After he graduated from high school, George got a job working in the engraving department at the Los Angeles Herald, where he sketched cartoons and ads.^[8] Thinking to try his luck in New York, he was working in New York by 1900 as a billboard painter,^[8] living in a boarding house in Brooklyn.^[6] His occupation was recorded on the census as "artist," which refers not just to his work on billboards, but also to his budding career in cartooning. In 1902 he began the comic strip Musical Mose in the satire magazine Judge.^[8] He would work on over a dozen more strips during the next few years, some of which became syndicated, assuring him of a career.^[1]

George returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart, Mabel Lillian Bridge, in Los Angeles on 7 July 1902;^[9] their daughter Mabel was born in New York City on 10 May 1903.^[10] The family remained in Manhattan through 1905;^[11] where George's recorded occupation was specific: he was a cartoonist.^[11] They returned to Los Angeles in 1906, when George began working for the Los Angeles Examiner, and signed a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate to distribute his work.^[8] George and Mabel's second daughter, "Bobbie", was born in Los Angeles on 15 May 1908,^[12] and the family maintained a home in Los Angeles.^[13]

George debuted an androgynous black cat named Krazy in his short-lived strip The Dingbats Family in 1910.^[14] Krazy and his costar, Ignatz the Mouse, appeared in the margins of the larger strip.^[14] Krazy and Ignatz got their own strip when Krazy Kat debuted in The New York Evening Journal on 28 October 1913.^[7] Krazy Kat moved Krazy and Ignatz to Coconino County, Arizona.^[14] The plot of the strip is detailed in "Krazy Kat A Love Story" in American Heritage magazine:

Krazy loves Ignatz, a cynical, brick-throwing mouse. Ignatz hates Krazy. Ofissa Pupp, the well-meaning canine cop, loves Krazy and tries to protect her from getting beaned by Ignatz. Krazy, however, loves having her head creased with a brick thrown by Ignatz, because to Krazy it’s a sign of his love for her.^[15]

From this bizarre love triangle, George crafted a strip that was enjoyed by children and intellectuals alike. The poet e e cummings was a fan, as was writer T. S. Eliot.^[7] President Woodrow Wilson would share the strip at cabinet meetings.^[8] Krazy Kat ran until George's death in 1944. It has been cited as an influence by many cartoonists and animators, including Al Capp, Dr. Seuss, Jules Feiffer, Charles Schulz, and Ralph Bakshi.

George and Mabel lived in the Los Angeles area of California for the rest of their lives,^[16][17][18] and regularly visited the southwestern deserts of the United States, where George drew inspiration for his fanciful backdrops.^[1]

George Herriman died in Los Angeles on 25 April 1944,^[19] and his ashes were scattered over Monument Valley, Arizona.^[20]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Wikipedia contributors, "George Herriman," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Herriman&oldid=1177855452 (accessed October 30, 2023).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Nelson George, "Invisibly Black: A Life of George Herriman, Creator of ‘Krazy Kat’," The New York Times (Article online : accessed 7 January 2021).
3. ↑ "Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WKXZ-5CT2 : 20 September 2019), George J Herriman, 1880.
4. ↑ "Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906," database, FamilySearch (Birth record : accessed 7 January 2021), Henry Herriman, 1882.
5. ↑ "Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906," database, FamilySearch (Birth record: accessed 7 January 2021), Louisa Elizabeth Herriman, 1885.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (Census record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Herriman in household of Jacob Joseph Jones, Borough of Brooklyn, Election District 1 New York City Ward 31, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 562, sheet 2B, family 28, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,069.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4} Ben Schwartz, "A Tale Which Must Never Be Told: A New Biography of George Herriman," Los Angeles Review of Books, (Article online: accessed 7 January 2021).
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6} "George Joseph Herriman (1880-1944)," Blackpast, (Web page : accessed 7 January 2021).
9. ↑ "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," database with images, FamilySearch (Marriage record : accessed 7 January 2021), George Herriman and Mabel Bridge, 07 Jul 1902; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 1,033,147.
10. ↑ "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909," database, FamilySearch (Birth record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Herriman in entry for Mabel Herriman, 10 May 1903; citing Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, reference cn 22074 New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,983,865.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} "New York, U.S., State Census, 1905," database with images, Ancestry.com (Shareable record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Herrman, born 1880; citing New York, State Census, 1905, Population Schedules, Various County Clerk Offices, New York.
12. ↑ "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994," database with images, FamilySearch (Birth record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Joseph Herriman in entry for Barbara May Herriman, 15 May 1908; citing Birth, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, California State Archives, Sacramento.
13. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (Census record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Harriman, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 59, sheet 1B, family 18, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 83; FHL microfilm 1,374,096.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Elisabeth Crocker, "Some Say it With A Brick: George Herriman's Krazy Kat," University of Virginia, (Web page: accessed 7 January 2021).
15. ↑ "Krazy Kat A Love Story," American Heritage (Article online: accessed 7 January 2021).
16. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (Census record: accessed 7 January 2021), George Herriman, 1920.
17. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (Census record: accessed 7 January 2021), George J Herriman, Los Angeles (Districts 0001-0250), Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 66, sheet 3A, line 20, family 62, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 134; FHL microfilm 2,339,869.
18. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (Census record : accessed 7 January 2021), George Herriman, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 60-170A, sheet 3B, line 45, family 61, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 404.
19. ↑ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (Death record : accessed 7 January 2021), George Joseph Herriman, 25 Apr 1944; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
20. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed 07 January 2021), memorial page for George Herriman (22 Aug 1880–26 Apr 1944), Find A Grave: Memorial #7966756, Maintained by Find A Grave. Cremated, Ashes scattered by airplane over Monument Valley, Arizona.

See also:

• George Herriman at Wikipedia
  
• "Some Say it With A Brick": George Herriman's Krazy Kat at the University of Virginia
  
• Digitized scans of Krazy Kat strips that have entered public domain
• http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2016/09/herriman-saturday_17.html
• Unsung Illustrators
• Wikidata: Item Q453440